If there is one thing that is guaranteed to get Gase fired, its losing the locker room.

I have been very critical of Gase this year, but maybe the one redeeming factor was that the team (drama aside ...) seemed to still be playing hard for him, trying their best, etc.

My wishes aside, I felt that if he had command of the locker room at the end of the year, he would probably be safe. If he loses that in these last few games though, hard to see a return. Lack of buy in and players questioning is not a great sign, but it reflects the product on the field we have witnessed multiple times this season. Players frustrated, confused, out of position, etc.

 

Actions reflect leadership!!!!!!

 

Yeah, it will be interesting to see if anyone is dogging it when they watch the film. As for what they said, was it really that bad? I didn't take it like they had checked out or anything. Of course, what they do, and what they say to the media may be two different things.

 

No doubt about that. Look at how we usually collapse at season end. Big game against the Vikings that have playoff implications? We **** the bed. Ravens, Steelers jockeying for a spot? They rise to the occasion. Not saying this is all on Gase and our coaches, but they are a big part of the problem. IMO, this is on everyone, players and coaches alike. Football is still a team sport, isn't it? Until we get stronger mentally as a team and learn to overcome the season's challenges we will always be outside looking in.

 

NE was a fluke really the indy game to me was the season we got lucky against the pats and that what it was its a bad pats team and we had to pull out every stop in the books. this team was lost awhile back, its not hard for everyone to play against tom and the pats, everyone hates them lol. I seen no fire out of anyone against the vikes. i really think after watchin us get blown out not one of them coaches deserves to be there. My fav part was when gase was sitting on the bench all by himself and the camera was on him and he just started to rant and freak out like a child. Stand up address your team and light a fire no one cares about your pitty parties. but we will be stuck with this team again next year because well its miami.

 

drake wants more plays and reshad is upset he is playing free safety and TJ is now strong safety. This may be Reshad's last year here. Burke said TJ communicates better and TJ has been blowing it up in the run game recently

 

I'd like to point out here that, unless I missed something, we have no clue what questions are being asked here. All we see are guys responding to questions, and at one point I got the sense that Drake was sort of being led down that path or answers by the reporters.

Hearing these answers without the questions that were asked just makes it seem more scandalous than it is. They sound like typical "non answers" to me, and without much context it's impossible to take much meaning out of it.

Whenever a reporter doesn't include his original question in the video, it's usually because it was a loaded question designed to manufacture drama.

 

We also have to realize that we heard the same thing from Landry, Ajayi, etc. People who have roles limited tend to be unhappy about it- that's definitely not "losing the locker room". I don't know about Drake or what's going on there, but Jones was cut back for freelancing too much since it led to some huge breakdowns in coverage in weeks 4-5. I'm definitely not happy about it because he's a true stud, but the coaches have to coach and Gase has a track record of making solid player decisions for the benefit of the team.

 

i think with drake the problem lately has been he is dancing too much and not hitting the hole right away which is leading to negative yards. We cant be in 3rd and 10 all the time.

 

It's ultra-tough with Drake since any given touch could be a TD. I did notice that he had the lead block this past Sunday though and decided to cut it all the way back across the LOS...I'm sure the coaches weren't happy with that decision and I forget if he gained anything or not (it seems like it was a few yards). Stuff like that does get you a time out in Gase's system though.

 

I could be wrong, but I think the reason Drake isn't playing as much has more to do with his picking up the blitz and his inability to anchor. I think he has an ankle. Didn't Bellage struggle early on this year to correctly ID the right guy and get the job done? Maybe he is doing better now. I am not sure he can do better than Drake, but at least he's closer to 100%.

 

Players implying that the coaches have no idea what they are doing... I wonder where such falsehood come from.

 

I think the main problem offensively is Gase realizes the limitations of our offense as is with all the injuries.

We can't drop back 5 steps and pass, we can't consistently beat defenders 1-1 on the outside, 3/5 of our line isn't staring caliber on top of that.

How many points were most of you expecting last week btw? Personally I was expecting 24 combined offense/defense/special teams points, to win I thought we needed a 24-17 type game.

The defense comes out and lets them have 21 right away. All isnt lost on that side, we have some really good talent and some good role players but we need a revamp on defense when it comes to our coordinator and front four.

Also I want to point out last week the players said the exact opposite. We won because we prepare for that situation.

IMO A lot of people are digging in too deep to this.

 

I disagree, to a point. True it is a team sport but in this case, the Dolphins defense has been out of position and great players such as Romo, Carter, Fouts, and Aikman have all commented on the lack of preparation and poor design of both the Miami offense and defense. Every good defensive team that Miami faces has the same prescription to beat them, blitz. Miami has no answer. This is clearly a coaching issue. The problem is that the situation is more dire than it appears to be because Miami has won a good number of games. The truth is that most of those wins were flukes (mostly key turnovers saved Miami). Miami has dominated no one and this could have easily been a 3-4 win season. Gase should be dismissed.

 

I'm not defending our coaches, but I am not ignoring player mistakes either.

 

IMO his obsession with his own offense is inevitably going to cost him his job because preparation and QC everywhere else is lacking. Ideally he should've had an OC to pass the reigns to after Year 1 or 2, so that he could properly focus on rounding out the team. But as we've seen, he's terrible at picking his coordinators.

He kind of reminds me of my father in that the guy is a control freak with his business and he's burning himself out at the age of 66.

 

could you imagine this ever happening in New England? The coach there has control and the team is a like minded hive. Were a bunch of randoms

 

I think Gase can see what he wants in his head, and it's most likely good enough to win, but I don't think he can teach it to someone else. Unless they are P. Manning etc.

So, I DO think an OC would do wonders for this team in that maybe they'd understand Gase and he could teach it to the players.

 

I'm telling you, NE fans are legitimately insane.

 

This a thousand times.

There’s a guy I’ve been following on youtube, Anthony Saba, who’s been doing a really good job of breaking down dolphin’s plays this season.
[I highly recommend people here subscribe to his channel, if for no other reason than to give him encouragement to continue].

That has been a recurring theme in his videos. “The Dolphins did a great job here but [one player screwed up and prevented a good play].” I think this is where a lot of the positive player support for Gase has come from, in that they can see on film that so many plays have been one breakdown away from being big plays for us.

However at the end of the day someone has to take responsibility for the lack of QC. It isn’t that some of our backups aren’t as talented as our first stringers. It’s that the accumulated mental errors are what has dragged this season down. If Gase has his head inside the offensive playcalling it takes away his attention from other areas.

 

Um, did you not hear it happening in NE after we spanked their asses? They're on a worse losing streak than we are and there's all kinds of trash talk out there why it's happening.

 

Not so simple. For instance, if you take the first half of the season, and looked at all of the opposing teams runs that broke for ten or more yards at least 25 percent were Raekwon McMillan fault. That's no ones fault. That's called rookie learning how to play in nfl. Bills went through the same exact problem with their rookie yremaine edwards

 

I took him to be referring to the offense?

The defense has been hot **** for most of the year, and not because of one player messing up on plays. We've seen multiple defenders confused and messed up on multiple plays throughout the entire season.

 

Edmonds is still having issues, their fans are frustrated with him..I don’t believe that kid will ever be a real good player, average sure, they can have average for that price, helps us.

 

Some of the struggles are well documented, but let's also remember they've forced 26 turnovers this year - which is tied for 5th best in the league.

 

The breakdowns have been happening on both sides of the ball. For rookies (and Raekwon is effectively a rookie) I don’t mind as long as I see progression through the season.

What I’m talking about are breakdowns like this:

Brice McCain isn’t a rookie and shouldn’t be making these kind of mental mistakes. Maybe if he doesn’t bite on the PA it would still have been a TD, but it would have been a more difficult throw. I’m not a film guy so I am trusting someone else’s analysis.
Or this

I am not wanting to blame any particular player for these plays. These are examples of the type of mental errors that are consistently holding the team back from its potential. Again I accept rookies, I accept not every player will be perfect every play, I accept backups are less talented than starters. What we shouldn’t accept is plays breaking down because of a lack of discipline, especially this deep into the season when a playoff run is on the line.

 

Yeah, no doubt, but a bunch of those have been been late in games so as to really not affect the game much at all. They're terrible at defending third down, of any distance, and rarely can cover screens. They're pretty damn good though in the red zone.

 

I agree. I might not have used McCain because He's a slot db playing boundary CB so he's playing out of position but you can see how one player can screw up a play where the other ten are doing their job. The Tannehill one is interesting. I had the same reaction as everyone when that play happened live but watching it slow mo I think he actually went with the right read. If he threw to the flats that ball ends up at the five or three yard line. It's not one on one it's one on two defenders. Conversely if oleary finds that soft spot about a yard or two back he can just settle and that's a TD. Instead he basically ran into the Db

 

You can find videos like this for every team in the NFL. Players making mental errors is not a unique Miami Dolphins problem.

 

Interesting conversation. It seems to me that for players, it's kind of like damned if you do, and damned if you don't, isn't it? I mean, if a guy is a team player, and if the coaches want to reduce their playing time doesn't that affect their next contract negotiation? However, if a player decides to freelance a bit, and makes plays in the process, even if that ends up hurting the defense at times that seems to help their market value, right? Isn't it a what have you done for me lately world? Don't we all just look at the TDs, interceptions, sacks, etc., but how do we reward a guy, like William Hayes for example, who does just what the scheme calls for? A quick search revels that Williams gets about 4 million this year on a one year contract and Jones will get over 13 million guaranteed next year(maybe more, but not sure how to interpret the chart at overthecap). Not saying that Jones isn't a team player and when he was playing at a high level he wasn't helping us. I am just kind of discussing why a guy might just be thinking about himself first and the team second. I might add it's tough on GM's too. Some guys ramp up their play in a contract year, and then gear down after they get a nice deal. I know as a Dolphin fan that has seemed to happen to us a lot, but I am sure it happens to all the teams from time to time.

 

Nice post! I agree, we should be better than that. I was under the impression that McCain worked as hard as anyone, but maybe I am wrong. That said, I am sure glad we signed Fitzpatrick. The dude works his butt off. He hasn't had as many turnovers that I had hoped for and he tends to be grabby, but I think he will get better in time. Last week they said he was in the film room on his day off, and that extra preparation may have helped him with the pick 6 he got. The bonus about having a guy like him is he sets a great example for the other guys. Hopefully, it will rub off and more of them will be putting in the extra time. Note: the extraordinary comment in my sig. was from Fitzpatrick. Love that guy!

 

Over the past two games, I couldn't help but think "Why isn't McDonald a linebacker?" He's FANTASTIC up close to the LOS and always seems to lay punishing hits. Of course, Jones used to do the same thing when he was in that position, and he didn't get beat very often in coverage like McDonald sometimes does. It's a good problem to have when you have lots of talent but only if you know how to make it all work together. I'm just not seeing that due to our problems at corner and nickel....we're letting people get wide open by blown coverage.

For Jones, it has to be frustrating and he needs to communicate that in a positive way to the coaches. I don't think he's the type to "play down" in a non-contract year....I just think he's a victim of circumstance.

 

I dont really know the size comps ... but I wondered this myself. Guys like Thomas Davis and Mark Barron come to mind.

 

I am sure he is going to like his nice pay day, but I think Jones just wants to play. I am the same way. If I am going to be a part of something, I want to be involved.

 

This is true ... but on the other hand, it's not equal.

It's like when people point out missed throws or dropped INTs. Yeah, those happen with every QB, but some more than others.

That said, I certainly dont have a statistical breakdown or comparison, though I recall somewhere seeing THill among the league leaders in dropped ints.

 

I didn’t want to latch onto McCain in particular because the broader point I was making wasn’t tied to any one player. I’m not a film cutter and I have no real idea if that one play is representative of McCain’s overall play.

I was reinforcing adamprez’s point about a lack of QC and an overall level of mental mistakes that is far too high. These are the types of error that the team is making on both sides of the ball, and in my view it’s the low hanging fruit for the team to improve

 

This is bull****, rashad is right. We are playing him out of position, T.J. is nothing more than a poor man's rashad jones. He is not nearly as good, should be reshad's backup and fitzpatrick should be playing free safety, eventhough that is not his best position which is why I thought we should have drafted derwin james. Fitzpatrick is also a better strong safety or slot corner which means we actually have three good strong safeties on the team and no good free safeties. Great job by tbaum and coaches of not knowing how to put together a coherent and complementary roster.